Erin and Dustin

How We Met

When Dustin and I were 14, my best friend wanted me to come to school with her for a day. She warned me that there was this guy who would probably try to flirt with me. We certainly hit it off, and spent that summer Facebook messaging until high school began. Nothing ever came of it until it was time for Junior prom in the spring of 2012. I had heard rumors from friends that he was going to ask me, and he had heard rumors that I wasn’t planning to go, so he almost never asked! I got a friend to talk to him, and 2 weeks before prom, he stopped by my locker after school, and staring at the floor, he asked me to go to prom with him.

Around the time of his birthday a few weeks later, he asked our friend group if anyone wanted to see the Avengers for his birthday–I was the only one to say yes! So we made a date of it, looking around a bookstore that afternoon and then seeing the movie (which we were late to after getting lost) and closing off the night with Taco Bell and hanging out at my house. A few weeks after that, he came up to me before school and handed me a handmade birthday card that detailed how much fun he had with me, and that he was excited about our upcoming ice skating trip, with a note to turn it over. When I did, there was a note that asked “Will you be my girlfriend?” I gave him a big hug, and he swears to this day that I never actually said yes! In 2013, we graduated from high school, and went on to Calvin College in the fall. Since then, we have been enjoying college life and will celebrate our 5 year anniversary right before graduation in May!

how they asked

After returning to Calvin in August of 2016, we were both very busy with our campus jobs, and he suggested that we go see a movie at the end of a long week. He bought me a book, “The Light Between Oceans” with tickets to see the movie inside. He had chosen our seats to be where the seats were electric recliners with lots of leg room, nice and close to the screen.

As the previews began rolling, the screen glitched and it took a good 30 seconds to get things under control- everyone in the theater was very confused. The previews resumed, but instead of a movie trailer, a video with my name in the title slide started to play! People began looking around, still very confused. The video contained photos of us through the years, with clips of movie proposals interspersed. At the end of the video, he pulled me out of my seat and dropped to one knee. The theater clapped, and one woman even went to the lobby and bought us a gift card as a congratulations!

When the movie was over, he pointed out where the photographer and videographer were hiding the whole time. They followed us into the lobby where a group of our friends were waiting for us to celebrate!